Stevens School Runaways -- Part 4

“The Bad Day”

March 12th began on a dismal note for Rich when he failed an English test. “It was grammar – stuff about definite and indefinite pronouns and past participles and passive verbs,” he told Tom while they were lying in bed that evening,” Mrs. O’Neill – the old bitch – really got on my case.” Mrs. O’Neill was in her 50s, a thin stick for a figure with little hint of the feminine, a real disciplinarian. Away from the school she was a sadistic dominatrix – mostly with grown men – unless some parents wanted private lessons for their incorrigible child or she drew punishment duty at Stevens. Her face was oval and hard, lined with wrinkles -- her eyes close together like a raven’s. She wore excessive perfume – and it was a scent Rich found repulsive. “I just couldn’t concentrate,” he added.

“Looking at her and smelling her all class period, I’m surprised you could ever concentrate,” Tom said, “Imagine having sex with her.”

“Ewwh – gross!”

“Or what if she saw you naked.”

“Yecch!”

“Or got to touch you all over?”

“I think my cock would try to crawl back into my nuts. Seriously. Ewwh! I don’t want to think about that. It’s disgusting.”

“Enough to make a guy turn gay or something,” Tom opined.

The boys’ chortle went on in the same vein for a few minutes until Tom brought up the next event in the day’s list of tribulations.

“Cousins scared me today. He said something about me and you – we better be on our best behavior – we’re being watched. I asked him why he kept staring at us – ‘I don’t’ – he said, ‘it’s your imagination. Besides, I wasn’t referring to me,” he said. “What are you talking about then, sir?” I asked him. ‘I’ve said too much already. Just be careful. Keep those feet of yours from straying too far.’

“What do you think he meant by that?” Rich asked, “Do you think he knows we might run away from this place?”

“Nahh. How could he? But I was a little scared. It was kind of creepy.”

“Maybe he was trying to warn us or something.”

“I think we’re just jittery,” Tom concluded. After a few more minutes, the topic of the extra-duty gym workouts came up. “How many laps did that jerk Reilly make you do today?”

“Thirty – I think. I feel like I’m training for a freaking marathon. How long will we be putting up with this shit?” Both boys dreaded the barefoot workouts.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if we could wear freaking shoes,” Tom added, “Maybe Reilly has some kind of foot thing. I saw some web pages about that on the Internet once. Freaking crazies.”

“There are worse things. I was surfing one day and came across something called ‘The Eunuch Archive.’ That’s when they cut off a guy’s balls and maybe even his dick.”

“You’ve got to be kidding? Serious?”

“No lie!”

Suddenly, like a cloudburst, another fear surfaced. “You don’t think that when they punish kids here they freaking CASTRATE them? Or cut off their dicks?” Tom felt a shiver coursing through him to the base of his fundament.

“I sure hope not!” Rich exclaimed.

Silence struck up between the two adolescents like a fence. In fact, Rich was starting to doze off when Tom suddenly brought up something a bit startling – considering how their isolation – even alienation -- from the other boys had been persistent. The others had seemed to avoid Tom and Rich except when absolutely necessary. “That kid Carter came up to me too – on the field afterwards – it was almost dark. I think he snuck out to see me. He wants to be friends he says.”

“Maybe he’ll tell us what it was like to be punished. What they did to him. But I don’t think they cut his balls off. Maybe they shot some kind of chemical into his balls."

“I'm wondering why all of a sudden he wants to be buddy-buddy?” Rich asked warily.

It was a good question.

End of Part 4 -- Part 5 – “Escape”

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